The seventh-year school underlines an aspect of Huerta’s personality that helped him transition from soccer to karate to MMA and building a promising and undefeated start to his career: He’s just fine jumping into uncomfortable situations.

Looking for more challenges, the undefeated Huerta (5-0) takes on Nelson Salas (3-0) at Legacy Fighting Championships 11 on Friday at Houston’s Arena Theatre. He is part of an HDNet-broadcast seven-fight main card that also includes Clay Hantz and Jorge Patino fighting for the vacant lightweight title.

So while running his business – Millennium Martial Arts – Huerta has added a fighting career that has seen him win all five of his fights, including three in the first round. The 31-year-old went from community center to advanced classes to the World Combat League to the uncomfortable transition to MMA, where he struggled at first with the ground work.

With helpful messages from training partners and the work ethic gleaned from his immigrant father, Huerta stayed with the sport and hopes to make his next statement on Friday.

“I really don’t feel like I’ve accomplished too much yet; I have a long way to go,” he said. “It’s up to me to work to get there.”

Soccer to martial arts

Huerta’s father was a soccer player in Mexico, part of the feeder system for one of the country’s major professional teams. But by age 17, he wanted to leave the country, so he traveled to the U.S. and began his own path of transition.

“I admire him a lot,” Huerta said. “He really didn’t have any money, didn’t know the language. He just came and started working hard. He took it upon himself to learn the language, which a lot of people don’t do. He said to himself he needed to learn the language to be successful.”

Meanwhile, he passed on his interests to his son while taking Huerta out for soccer cone drills by the time he was 3 years old. Huerta played seriously until he was 14, but his interest soon turned to a long-time curiosity with martial arts.

It began with a local community center, where he attended beginners’ classes. The instructor also taught elsewhere, and he soon invited Huerta to more advanced training. He eventually ventured into tae kwon do and karate, and competed in high-level tournaments and winning his share.

It was when Huerta joined the World Combat League that he got his first taste of martial arts on the ground, which he had not yet practiced. It was humbling as he turned his training to an MMA focus about four years ago.

“I was used to karate and winning, and then I was getting my butt kicked regularly in practice,” he said. “I couldn’t defend takedowns, and I couldn’t get back up.”

A turning point came after a particularly humbling practice session, when a training partner found him sullen. Huerta had known mostly success, which is why the advice struck true.

“He said, ‘You have to learn to humble yourself a little bit,'” Huerta said. “He said, ‘Sometimes you have to get your ass kicked before you can kick ass.’ I showed up the next day with a whole new attitude.”

Business owner and fighter

By August 2010, after about two years of training, Huerta took his first professional MMA fight. He won his Texas Cage Fighting bout in the first round, which inspired support from others to continue his career.

He wasn’t sure. He didn’t begin his training to make it a career. After all, he has his karate school to run.

Then, more advice from a different close friend.

“He said, ‘You like challenges, right?’ I said, ‘Of course,'” Huerta said. “So he said, ‘Do you feel like you were challenged last night (in his first pro fight)?’ And I wasn’t. I wasn’t really pushed. It just hit me that I wanted to be pushed.”

So he continued his career, eventually fighting for Legacy Fighting while running his record to 5-0. Meanwhile, with his family’s help, he was growing his own school, which he learned while offering to help arrange the classes and his first community center. He found his own property, began the preparations himself and organized, the business himself.

The difficulty has been balancing his own training with the needs of the school. In fact, Huerta said, he initially had been over-training, so he has scaled back to avoid any fatigue and hopefully keep him fresher for his fights.

His next chance comes Friday, where he hopes to continue his success in facing new challenges.

“I’ve started to really figure out how to keep this balance and how much to train,” he said. “I feel like I’m in even better shape now than I have been, so I want to continue this experience.”

Award-winning newspaper reporter Kyle Nagel is the lead features
writer for MMAjunkie.com. His weekly “Fight Path” column focuses on the
circumstances that led fighters to a profession in MMA. Know a fighter
with an interesting story? Email us at news [at] mmajunkie.com.

Ronda Rousey’s statistical greatness has already ventured into uncharted territory – just six fights into her UFC career. Check out all the post-fight facts, including Rousey’s latest achievements, about UFC 190.